I'm Right Here
by Miss Astrid Johnston
Summary: Oh, snap! Jet's caugh a nasty stomach bug that's been going around, and Albert's stuck helping him through the night. Oneshot. 002x004. Yaoi, slash, but no lemon or lime. Just fluff. Don't like, don't read.


Jet hated mornings.

Every single day at 8:00 a.m., he would always be laying in his bed, sound asleep and in the utmost peace. Occasionally, he'd be in the middle of a sweet dream where he and Albert were together. Ah, his sweet little Albert. Always there, always so nice. But it was all interrupted by that screeching little doohickey that would never, ever, shut up (no matter how hard he'd throw it).

And that little evil device was called the alarm clock. Every single morning, he'd hear that same sound.

'Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnng!'

But this morning would spell very, very unpleasant for him.

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The sun barely peeked over its normal horizon line. It peered over so its rays gently hit the earth like a mother cat gently licks her kittens. A fresh blanket of snow had just fallen over the area, seeing that it was in the middle of December.

Luckily, Jet had finally found out that chucking the alarm clock across the room was not the way to turn it off. Joe had taught him that one day, when he had to stay over at Jet's apartment due to a nasty termite infection in his own home. He heard the loud bang and Jet's angry shouting of, 'Turn the hell off, you piece of crap!' Sadly, Jet had failed to realize that there was a magic little off button on the back. Joe helped him point it out, but he didn't blame Jet for not noticing. God, it was so small, they had to press it with a ballpoint pen.

Finally, Jet got the opportunity to sleep in after turning it off the night before. Normally, an earthquake wouldn't be able to wake him up. But if wasn't for a nasty little bug that had been spreading around, he would have slept much better that morning.

Jet stirred, focusing on keeping his eyes open. He looked over to the no longer evil clock sitting on his nightstand, and could see that it said 5:30 a.m. Oh. Wait, five thirty? Was that clock even right? Jet felt too tired to check again.

He shivered. For some reason, it was extremely cold in the room (to him, anyway). He pondered the fact that the A.C. in the building might have been broken or something. Or maybe it was the weather, but he always had the furnace up to about 75 degrees when it was this cold outside. He decided he'd consult his landlady sometime.

He snuggled into the sheets, and fell asleep in mere minutes.

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"Oh, crap. He forgot." Albert was pacing around his living room. He and Jet were supposed to go out for lunch today. Unfortunately, Jet was about thirty minutes late.

"I'd kill him if he wasn't so cute…" Albert murmured angrily.

What if something was wrong? If Jet was late, he'd better have a damn good reason. And usually, for things like this, he did. There was that time where they were supposed to go see a movie, but Jet was too busy trying to pull out a nail he had stepped on out of his foot (which was almost as bloody and gross as Albert could stand), then he nearly set the kitchen on fire when he messed up the stove, then that stray Rottweiler broke into his house…

Albert sighed heavily. "If it's taking him this long to show up, I might as well go check on him." He said. He pulled on his jacket, hastily wrapped a scarf around his neck, and walked out.

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_'Wait… wasn't there something that I was supposed to do today…?'_Jet thought lazily. He was still freezing cold, even thought it was afternoon. '_C'mon… I know that there was _something_…'_

His thoughts were immediately cut off as soon as he felt his stomach tighten up, painfully so. He winced, and tried to ignore it.

Then, there was a knock on the door of his apartment. He forced himself to get up, still shivering and cringing.

_'This had better be important.'_He thought angrily. After finally making it to the door, he unlocked it, and opened it up.

His jaw nearly dropped to the ground when he was Albert there, looking _very_ miffed. How on Earth could he have forgotten that tonight was their date night? He was in big trouble now. He tried to control his shaking, and tried to stand up straight without hurting his stomach too much.

"L-look… I-I completely f-f-forgot, and…" Jet explained through shivers. Albert's gaze lightened from absolutely P.O.'d to worried when he saw Jet's expression.

"You don't look so good…" Albert mused.

He was right in every way. It was easy to see that Jet had just woke up, the way his wild orange hair was completely flat in one place and protruding in other places. He looked pale and had an expression that was twisted in pain.

Jet felt his stomach cramp up even more. Oh God, not now. Not in front of his boyfriend. Not here.

"I-I completely l-l-lost track of t-the time… a-and… I-I mean…" Jet tried to say.

Oh, damn. Now he felt as if a python was wrapping itself around his gut and squeezing. Now the pain was too great to ignore.

"Jet." Albert stopped him. "You look sick. Are you okay?"

Jet tried to respond, but he sank to his knees, wrapping his arms around his midriff. He was shaking more violently that ever before and was breathing hard. It felt like G. Junior was crushing his stomach with every ounce of his energy. That answered Albert's question.

The German crouched down to Jet's eye level, beginning to panic. "Jet, what's wrong with you?" He asked worriedly.

Jet opened his mouth to answer, but another wave of pain hit him full-force. He moaned, and tightened his grip on his abdomen. It didn't take a real rocket-scientist to figure out exactly what was going on.

Albert drew Jet closer with his arms, holding him gently and letting the redhead rest against his sturdy chest. Jet relaxed his tense body as he felt the warmth of his boyfriend. His breathing calmed as he heard Albert's heartbeat, strong and steady. The silver-haired man rubbed small circles in Jet's back, trying to calm the ill American.

After the pain ebbed away somewhat, Jet felt okay enough to speak.

"I guess this cancels the date, huh?"

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It was now around 1:00 p.m., and the weather outside hadn't warmed up much. Jet was confined to his bed, with 3 blankets atop him, trying to relieve his chills.

He absolutely spurned being sick. Nothing frustrated and aggravated him more than not being able to do anything but lie around and watch reruns on TV. Even more when Albert had to see him in his weakest state, let alone be taking care of him.

"Jet, I wish you'd stop being so grouchy." Albert sighed, standing above him.

"Tch. I'd like to see you put on a sunshine smile when it feels like a sumo wrestlers stepping on your gut, Heinrich." Jet scoffed. He felt his stomach tighten even more, and sucked in a breath through clenched teeth, in obvious pain.

Albert felt just so sorry for his boyfriend. The two were looking forward to their date, actually.

"Do you have any pain pills around the house?" Albert asked.

"Mm… 's no point in me buying stuff I don't need… I don't get sick hardly at all." Jet murmured tiredly.

"Jet, you should try looking to the future, you know?" Albert said. "Look, will you be okay by yourself for, I dunno, half an hour?" He questioned. "I might as well pick up some meds or something."

Jet nodded. "I'll be fine…" He said, beginning to feel drowsy. "…'m probably gonna crash here in a while…"

Albert nodded. "Okay, then. I'll be back in a few." He simply walked out of the door (being too distracted to take his coat and scarf off when he came).

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"Hm… the Pepto Bismol might be useful, but damn, it's overpriced… ah, I'll just get the Tylenol; same difference." Albert peered over the seemingly endless rows of medication at the pharmacy. When he thought he'd found the best medication for Jet, he'd see another one that was even better, but was so much more expensive.

"Albert?"

Albert turned around to where he heard his name called. He instantly recognized the familiar brown-haired young man.

"Joe!" He greeted.

"Hey, how's it going?" Joe replied, smiling warmly. Man, it looked as though that smile could melt all of the snow around the town.

"Oh, it's been better." Albert admitted.

"Hm… what's up?" Joe asked with a look of worry upon his face.

"Ah, Jet's not really feeling good enough to go out, so we had to cancel our lunch date." The German explained.

"Ouch. It might actually be that stomach flu that's been going around." Joe said.

"Oh, really? How many people have had it?" Albert asked worriedly.

"Wow… let's see, G.B. had it, then Francoise, Chang… I was pretty surprised when I heard Ivan got it, too." The half-Japanese man said.

"Yeah, other than that bug, how is Francoise?" Albert inquired.

"Well, she got over it a while back, now she's doing pretty well." Joe said, smiling at the thought of his beautiful girlfriend.

"Good, good… well, I'd better go on now." Albert said. The two said goodbye after a few minutes.

_'Oh hell, I'll just get the Pepto Bismol.'_Albert thought.

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The door to Jet's apartment slowly opened. The silver-haired man made his way through, stomping the snow off of his shoes on the mat inside. "I'm back." He called out.

No response. He set the medicine down on the coffee table next to the couch, and walked into Jet's bedroom. It looked as though the sheets and blankets were kicked off.

_'That's weird.'_ Albert thought to himself. He saw that the door to the bathroom was cracked opened. His curiosity got the better of him, and he opened the door. He was quite surprised when he saw Jet leaning on the wall, in a sitting position. He looked even paler than before. A hand rested on his stomach, and his face was twisted as if he was in pain.

Albert rushed inside the bathroom, worried for his boyfriend. He crouched down to eye level with Jet.

"Jet, what the hell happened? You look awful." He asked.

Jet tried to answer, but he paled and his eyes widened. Almost instantly, he stuck his head in the toilet, and began to vomit. Every single retch wreaked havoc on his already sore stomach. The acid burned his throat in the worst way, making him want to just die.

Albert gently wrapped his hands around Jet's midsection, and stroked the area surrounding his navel. He tried to comfort Jet through the painful episode.

Jet was in so much pain. Though the sweet sensation of Albert stroking his sore stomach helped somewhat… it still hurt. A lot.

It seemed like forever until the painful episode had ended. Jet had basically regurgitated every single thing he had eaten in the past week, and he _still_ felt sick.

Jet decided that he had enough of lying around the bathroom. He gripped the counter and pulled himself up. He began to tremor with another chill, and nearly stumbled to the ground. Luckily he was able to catch himself before meeting face-to-face with the tiled floor.

"Let me help you before you fall and break that nose of yours." Albert said. He let the American lean on him, and supported him to his room.

As soon as they reached the destination, Jet collapsed onto his bed. He was still in pain; Albert could tell.

The silver-haired German decided to climb in next to his lover to try and comfort him. He got under the covers, and inched closer to Jet.

Jet seemed to enjoy this. Albert let Jet's head rest on his chest, and he let the American wrap his arms around Albert's back.

Several minutes passed. Just before Albert was about to crash, he heard Joe's words echo in his mind:

_'It might actually be that stomach flu that's been going around.'_

Maybe that was the case. Jet was just about to fall asleep, but noticed Albert's puzzled look.

"… something wrong?" He asked tiredly. Albert nodded, looking deep in thought.

"I think you might have the stomach flu or something." He said, his voice trailing off. Now he just needed to check…

_'Let's see… if I remember correctly, the usual symptoms are usually being real chilly, cramps, throwing up, fever, nausea… he's got some of those, but… ah, I'll find it out.'_

Albert pulled his flesh hand up from under the sheets, and felt Jet's forehead. He almost instantly drew it back. Needless to say, it was warm.

_'Okay… that does it for the fever…__ now I just need to ask him about his symptoms… __'_

"Jet?" Albert started.

"Mm… huh?" Jet asked.

"I'm pretty sure you've got the stomach flu, but I just need to know what you're feeling right now." Albert continued.

"…why?"

"Well, I don't want to misdiagnose you… like, is can just be food poisoning, and that usually doesn't last too long. So… just tell me how you're feeling."

Jet opened his mouth to speak, but he began to feel nauseous again. And if you've ever been this sick to your stomach, you just don't want to talk at all. He gave Albert a helpless look.

"You're chilly?"

Jet nodded.

"Is your stomach really upset?"

Jet nodded again.

"Is it hurting and sore?"

Jet nodded.

"Congratulations, Jet. You officially have the stomach flu."

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The clock read about 6:00 p.m. Seeing that it was winter, the sun went down long ago due to the weather change. Albert was stuck trying to persuade… no, force, Jet to take the Pepto Bismol he had purchased.

"Jet, I swear to God… just take it already." Came Albert's frustrated sigh.

"Hey, I can get over this thing on my own. I don't need that medicine junk that tastes like a shoe." Replied Jet's angry voice.

"Oh? And I'm going to guess that you're one of those people who get a kick out of pain?" Albert shot back.

No response.

"That's what I thought. Now just take the medicine, alright?"

"Chances are I'm just gonna puke it up again."

"Jet… this thing is designed for problems in the digestion tract."

"Did you create this crap--"

Jet was cut off as Albert took the chance to shove the spoonful into Jet's mouth in mid-sentence. As soon as Jet's expression changed to shock, Albert clamped his hand over the persisting American's mouth.

"Swallow it." He ordered.

Jet tried to struggle, but damn, that grip was strong. He refused to swallow it.

Albert sighed in frustration. "I don't have a choice." He said. He put his free hand on Jet's throat, and began to massage it.

Now Jet was miffed. In mere seconds, he felt the cursed liquid slide down his throat. As soon as it passed through, Albert released his grip.

"We could have done it the easy way." He said. Jet didn't respond.

Albert felt a little guilty. Maybe he was a little rough on Jet… he decided to lighten the mood. He sat down on the edge of the bed, next to Jet.

"Y'know… I really don't blame you. The stuff does taste like crap."

Jet half-smiled at him. He knew Albert's intentions were good and everything, but when he did go to extremes, he'd always make it up in some way afterwards.

Jet hated the fact that the bug kept him from the date.

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It was sometime around 10 when Jet decided to sleep. He and Albert had spent the rest of the evening (after that little incident with the Pepto Bismol- lying around and watching TV. Jet still remembered that hilarious joke Albert cracked about Queen Latifah when they were stuck watching the end of Last Holiday, waiting for another show to come on.

When Jet had taken the medicine, he admitted that he felt somewhat better. Unfortunately, the medicine was going to give out that night.

It was around 11:00 p.m. when a sharp stomach pain snapped Jet awake. Albert was next to his side, and was sound asleep.

Jet tried to ignore it. But that was no easy task. The pain began to grow, and then the chills returned. He tried to keep calm.

_'It could be worse…'_He thought to himself. _'At least I'm not queasy…' _

Speak of the devil. Now he was feeling horrible, in every way. He knew that if he didn't want to awaken his boyfriend, he would just have to grin and bear it.

He did, for a while. It began to clear up, and he sighed a breath of relief. Thank God, it was over for now. Now he could finally get some sleep.

But this small victory was short lived.

Suddenly, his stomach growled loudly, immediately followed by a pain so intense that it felt like someone was chopping it with an axe.

He cried out in pain, which woke Albert up in a flash.

"Jet?! What is it?"

He looked to his side, and could find his lover curled up around a pillow, whimpering in obvious pain.

"Jet, what's wrong?" Albert inquired worriedly.

"I-it… O-oh God… i-i-it hurts…" Jet moaned while shaking uncontrollably. "P-please, just… m-make it s-s-stop…" Tears of pain began to trickle down his cheeks.

Albert moved closer to Jet, and slipped his arms up Jet's shirt. He stroked Jet's slim stomach, much enjoying the pleasure of his warm flesh.

What he did next was surprising and calm. Albert began to sing softly in smooth German. He remembered the tune as an old song his mother would sing to him when he couldn't sleep at night.

Jet felt the pain ebb away as Albert's hand continued to rub his sore belly. He closed his eyes in contentment; what a beautiful voice.

Long before Albert finished his lovely lullaby, Jet had fallen asleep. The silver-haired man, smiled, and soon, fell into a deep sleep as well.

The two couldn't have slept better.

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That is the end of one of the longest oneshots I have written. Enjoy it. Please. Review. Thank you.


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